Development of Predictive Bioassessment Indices of Non-Perennial Streams and Rivers in the Arid Southwestern United States

Freshwater systems are a limited resource and must be managed to maintain or restore their ecological health. Bioassessments, which use the biota at a site to draw conclusions on a system’s ecological health, are commonly applied to freshwater systems. Freshwater bioassessment programs are typically only applicable in perennial systems (those which have surface water continually) and do not yet have an accepted role in assessing non-perennial streams in their dry phase. Although dry phase non-perennial streams that have a significant hydrological nexus with traditionally navigable waters navigable waters are protected under the state of California and national legislations, they cannot be assessed with bioassessment currently. We sampled 106 dry streams in the arid southwestern United States and developed indices of taxonomic completeness (i.e., Observed to Expected or O/E indices) in dry streams to assess the effect of anthropogenic stress at these sites. We did this for three key assemblages in dry streams: channel-dwelling arthropods, riparian vegetation-dwelling arthropods, and bryophytes. We also explored different definitions ways of identifying reference sites and parameters related to index development to assess their effects on O/E indices’ performance. O/E indices using channel arthropods were the most responsive and sensitive to human activity, regardless of which reference definition or probability of capture threshold was used. Channel arthropods were the most responsive likely because they respond in a predictable way to stress. Vegetation-dwelling arthropods and bryophytes were absent at up to one quarter of all sites, which negatively affected index performance. The absence of these assemblages at reference sites yielded less responsive and unsuccessful indices developed with these assemblages. The ecological status of dry streams can be determined from indices of taxonomic completeness when using channel-dwelling arthropods. Other taxa may not occur consistently enough across sites to produce responsive indices. Vegetation-dwelling arthropods should be omitted from future O/E studies because of their lack of response to stressors in stream channels. Further research should be conducted on moss and their response to local stressors because of their response to stress is difficult to predict

LAS PyMES EN LA ZONA METROPOLITANA PUEBLA-TLAXCALA (ZMPT) MÉXICO

Las pequeñas y medianas empresas han desempeñado un papel fundamental en el desarrollo económico de México y su ubicación ha estado principalmente en las ciudades. Este segmento de empresas ha tenido desde los años cincuenta un papel relevante en la política industrial, la cual sería redefinida en los años ochenta con la llegada del neoliberalismo. Para los últimos años las PyMEs serían el centro de atención de numerosos gobiernos, investigadores y consultores, dada su capacidad como generadoras de empleo y riqueza, permitiendo un mayor conocimiento sobre sus características y relaciones con el entorno económico, pero en menor medida, con el territorio y sus procesos. En base a lo anterior en dicha investigación se plantea como preguntas de investigación: ¿Cómo Analizar el papel de las PyMEs mexicanas desde una perspectiva territorial? ¿Cómo analizar el de las PyMEs en el desarrollo de la ZMP-T? ¿Qué industria tomar como punto de partida para iniciar la investigación? La propuesta Investigación se encaminó a generar un análisis desde la perspectiva territorial mediante los encadenamientos productivos en la industria de alimentos, de manera tal que brinde elementos que permitan detectar los núcleos centrales de las ramas que integran la industria y su relación con el territorio, el resto de los actores y el impacto o no en el desarrollo de la ZMPT mediante la generación de empleos, formación de recursos humanos, su aporte a la producción, la innovación y cooperación inter-empresarial, demanda de insumos locales, así como su interrelación con el contexto y otros actores

Mathematical Models for Estimating the Risk of vCJD Transmission

We present two different simple models for vCJD transmission by blood transfusion. Both models indicate that transfusions alone are unlikely to cause more than a few infections, unless the number of primary cases increases. To improve our models, future work should pursue data collection, empirical estimation of the model parameters, and examination of the underlying assumptions of our frameworks. Further improvements could also include examining susceptibility to vCJD infection by age group and iatrogenic infections introduced through surgical instruments. Regarding the latter, it may be worthwhile to conduct experiments to quantify the transmission of prions from an infected surgical instrument after repeated sterilization procedures

A first-in-human study of AMG 208, an oral MET inhibitor, in adult patients with advanced solid tumors.

BackgroundThis first-in-human study evaluated AMG 208, a small-molecule MET inhibitor, in patients with advanced solid tumors.MethodsThree to nine patients were enrolled into one of seven AMG 208 dose cohorts (25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, and 400 mg). Patients received AMG 208 orally on days 1 and days 4-28 once daily. The primary objectives were to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of AMG 208.ResultsFifty-four patients were enrolled. Six dose-limiting toxicities were observed: grade 3 increased aspartate aminotransferase (200 mg), grade 3 thrombocytopenia (200 mg), grade 4 acute myocardial infarction (300 mg), grade 3 prolonged QT (300 mg), and two cases of grade 3 hypertension (400 mg). The MTD was not reached. The most frequent grade ≥3 treatment-related adverse event was anemia (n = 3) followed by hypertension, prolonged QT, and thrombocytopenia (two patients each). AMG 208 exposure increased linearly with dose; mean plasma half-life estimates were 21.4-68.7 hours. One complete response (prostate cancer) and three partial responses (two in prostate cancer, one in kidney cancer) were observed.ConclusionsIn this study, AMG 208 had manageable toxicities and showed evidence of antitumor activity, particularly in prostate cancer

EL GOBIERNO CORPORATIVO UNA NECESIDAD PARA EL DESARROLLO DE LAS MIPYMES

La relevancia de que las MIPYMES puedan transitar de una nula organización interna hacia la implementación del Gobierno Corporativo (GC), será posible si se capacita a los dueños de las empresas de manera tal que todos participantes interactúen para lograr el desarrollo mediante la alineación de una política interna de crecimiento donde todos colaboren para lograr el objetivo planteado por el administrador. IMEF (2010) define (GC) como “Un conjunto de prácticas y controles cuyo objetivo es llevar una administración transparente y equitativa alineada con los intereses de sus accionistas, teniendo como premisa prevenir conflictos de intereses y posibles abusos, así como el menoscabo en el patrimonio de sus inversionistas”. De acuerdo a información de la CONDUSEF (2016) del total de las empresas en México el 99.8% corresponden a MIPyMEs, que generan el 72% del empleo y contribuyen con el 52% del PIB. Estableciéndose como agentes claves para el desarrollo económico local, sin embargo, uno de los problemas centrales que enfrentan dichas empresas es el financiamiento. Ante ello la presente investigación muestra resultados preliminares de investigación producto de la aplicación a una encuesta aplicada a una muestra 309 empresas del total de empresas en 19 estados de la república mexicana atendidas por Financiera Provident, organización que otorga financiamiento y cuenta con una experiencia de más de 130 años de presencia tanto nacional como internacional. Dentro de los resultados obtenidos es posible mencionar que el 48 %de las empresas atendidas son micro, 44% pequeñas y 8% medianas; el 80.91% desempeña su actividad en el mercado local, el 37 % se dedican al comercio, el 9.39% de los dueños cuenta con licenciatura, el 69.26% son mujeres, el 48.19 de las empresas se ubica en el Estado de Puebla, el 49% de las empresas tuvo un crecimiento regular y finalmente concluyendo con la recomendación la capacitación a los integrantes de dichas empresas en las diferentes áreas con la finalidad de buscar la implementen el GC y tener posibilidades de acceder al financiamiento

Management Implications of the Biodiversity and Socio-Economic Impacts of Shrimp Trawler By-Catch in Bahía de Kino, Sonora, México

The shrimp fishery is the most economically important fishery in Mexico. The trawler-based portion of this fishery results in high rates of by-catch. This study quantifies and describes the biodiversity of by-catch associated with trawling in the Bahía de Kino region of Sonora, Mexico. Data were collected from 55 trawls, on six boats, over 14 nights, during November of 2003, 2004, 2006–2009. By-catch rates within trawl samples averaged 85.9% measured by weight. A total of 183 by-catch species were identified during the course of this study, including 97 species of bony fish from 43 families, 19 species of elasmobranchs from 12 families, 66 species of invertebrates from eight phyla, and one species of marine turtle; seven of the documented by-catch species are listed on the IUCN Red List, CITES, or the Mexican NOM-059-ECOL-2010; 35 species documented in the by-catch are also targeted by local artisanal fishers. Some of the species frequently captured as juveniles in the by-catch are economically important to small-scale fishers in the region, and are particularly sensitive to overexploitation due to their life histories. This study highlights the need for further research quantifying the impacts of high levels of by-catch upon small-scale fishing economies in the region and presents strong ecological and economic rationale for by-catch management within the shrimp fishery of the Gulf of California. Site-specific by-catch management plans should be piloted in the Bahía de Kino region to address the growing momentum in national and international fisheries policy regimes toward the reduction of by-catch in shrimp fisheries

Innovative Crop Productions for Healthy Food: The Case of Chia (Salvia hispanica L.)

Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) is an ancient crop from Central America which has been recently rediscovered as a source of ω-3 and nutraceuticals in seeds. Besides traditional seed consumption, innovative uses of the plant seeds and leaves have been proposed based on the high protein content and the production of mucilage which lends itself to a range of applications. This chapter reviews research on the plant’s genetics and breeding, quality, and uses. Agronomic studies which have only recently started worldwide are also presented along with results from case studies in Basilicata

Survival of newly formed particles in haze conditions

Intense new particle formation events are regularly observed under highly polluted conditions, despite the high loss rates of nucleated clusters. Higher than expected cluster survival probability implies either ineffective scavenging by pre-existing particles or missing growth mechanisms. Here we present experiments performed in the CLOUD chamber at CERN showing particle formation from a mixture of anthropogenic vapours, under condensation sinks typical of haze conditions, up to 0.1 s(-1). We find that new particle formation rates substantially decrease at higher concentrations of pre-existing particles, demonstrating experimentally for the first time that molecular clusters are efficiently scavenged by larger sized particles. Additionally, we demonstrate that in the presence of supersaturated gas-phase nitric acid (HNO3) and ammonia (NH3), freshly nucleated particles can grow extremely rapidly, maintaining a high particle number concentration, even in the presence of a high condensation sink. Such high growth rates may explain the high survival probability of freshly formed particles under haze conditions. We identify under what typical urban conditions HNO3 and NH3 can be expected to contribute to particle survival during haze.Peer reviewe